Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? – On Philippe Garrel’s ‘Frontier of the Dawn’
“This is a love story expressed through gaping structural absences.”
Action Hero Vulnerability and Shocking Comedy in John Frankenheimer’s ‘Dead Bang’
“The vomit moment in ‘Dead Bang’ is unfailingly human.”
The Absurdity of Our World: Tom Ford’s ‘Nocturnal Animals’
“With great color, style and technique, Ford haunts the audience with the disappointments of our absurd world.”
‘Fatal Attraction’ at 30
“Lyne does not believe in the ‘New Man.'”
Obsession and Compulsion: A Deep Look at ‘Single White Female’
“In ‘Single White Female,’ being fixated with a person’s looks, behavior and personality represents a fetishization of that person as a whole.”
‘Rampart’: A Season in the Abyss
“‘Rampart’ can never step out of the shadows.”
The Power of Suggestion in Ben Young’s ‘Hounds Of Love’
“‘Hounds of Love’ makes an intriguing case for suggestion in place of an all-out, sensationalized show.”
Sunday Spaghetti: Tonino Valerii’s ‘Day of Anger (I giorni dell’ira)’
“‘Day of Anger’ is a tightly-structured film about societal influencers and people on the fringe that need somebody in their corner.”
My Summer of Kirsten Dunst: Volume 4
“Marie Antoinette has become queen and left her partying days behind.”
The Uninhabitable Tomorrow: Bruce Robinson’s ‘Withnail & I’
“‘Withnail & I’ is chock-full with digs and insinuations of homoeroticism, some of them crude, others more subtle and rife with dramatic potential and longing.”
In the Shadow of Women: On the Farrelly Brothers’ ‘There’s Something About Mary’
“What begins as a seemingly lightweight romantic comedy gradually expands into a surprisingly sophisticated exploration of romantic obsession and self-delusion.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jeremy Carr on Anthony Mann’s ‘T-Men’ and ‘Raw Deal’
“In both ‘T-Men’ and ‘Raw Deal,’ Alton and Mann take what is already a heightened genre and somehow intensify its formal qualities.”
Hidden Gems of Soviet Cinema: On Sergei Loznitsa’s IDFA Top 10
“Now free to travel, these films now face the trouble of traveling well.”
More Than Mythology: Overt Quotation in James Mangold’s ‘Logan’
“Heavy-handed “meta” moments make the allusions worthless, and superhero films will keep hitting a glass ceiling until they can start creating their own cinematic mythology.”
Hopes and Fears in Helsinki: Pirjo Honkasalo’s ‘Concrete Night’
“The harsh dialogue may not connect, but the visuals most certainly will.”
‘A Serious Man,’ the Goy’s Teeth and the Coenesque
“When we watch the films, we can be Larry — agonising over ‘feeling the question’ — or we can be Sussman, content not to know but still enjoying the experience.”
Fantasia Film Festival 2017 Wrap-Up: My Festival vs. Your Festival
“I can’t make any grand pronouncements or bold proclamations, except that I need to either learn to read program descriptions more critically or invest in a plane ticket to Montreal next July.”
My Summer of Kirsten Dunst: Volume 3
“Between ‘Elizabethtown,’ ‘Marie Antoinette’ and ‘Spider-Man 3,’ Dunst’s life and art begin to imitate each other.”
‘It Comes at Night’ and the Trouble with Horror Movies That Don’t Fit Into a Genre-Specific Box
“The genius of ‘It Comes at Night’ is that its monsters are, for the most part, human.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Q.V. Hough on Federico Fellini’s ‘8 1/2′
“The moments of realization transcend the typical viewing experience.”